In a Strange Bronx Battle, Even the Republican Is Democratic

In one television ad, a candidate accused his rival of having once been a drug dealer. In response, the target of the charge put out a television ad that accused the first candidate of being bereft of principles and a ''sellout.''

These are the themes of the final week of the race in the 32nd State Senate District, a swath of the South Bronx that for the last few months has been the scene of one of the most unusual, contentious and litigious political races New York City has seen.

The race is between an incumbent state senator, Pedro Espada Jr., a longtime Democrat who announced in February his intention to become a Republican, and Ruben Diaz Sr., a city councilman who became a candidate for the Senate only 13 days before the Democratic primary in September.

Over the last few months, the race has turned even stranger, with one candidate hiring private investigators to dig up information on an opponent, and accusations of votes being cast by dead people in the Democratic primary. It has involved a deeply rooted family feud and produced reams of court papers filed by the state's top Democratic and Republican election lawyers. At times, voters have had little idea which candidate is on the ballot.

For now, some aspects of tomorrow's election are clear: Mr. Diaz, 59, is the candidate on the Democratic line. And Mr. Espada, 48, who campaigned tenaciously and fought in court until the 11th hour to gain the Democratic nomination, is the candidate on the Republican and Independence Party ballot lines.

In February, Mr. Espada, then a Democratic state senator, angered his party hierarchy by announcing his plans to switch to the Republican Party, which has control of the Senate. Bronx Democratic leaders tried to have Mr. Espada removed from the Democratic Party rolls.

Mr. Espada began to sit and vote with Republican senators -- not to mention to receive vastly increased funds to bring back to local nonprofit groups. But he never officially registered as a Republican. Instead, he fought in court to remain a candidate of the Democratic Party, which has more than 10 voters for every Republican voter in the 32nd Senate District.

The case went to the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the Democratic Party was within its rights to remove Mr. Espada from its rolls, but found that its method of doing so had been tainted by partisanship and would have to be redone to be valid.

Meanwhile, Mr. Espada was trying to eliminate any opposition. The Democrats endorsed a lawyer, Raysa Castillo, to run for the Senate seat, but Mr. Espada hired investigators who cast doubt on whether she lived in the district. Ms. Castillo was then removed from the ballot by a State Supreme Court justice, who found inconsistencies in her residency, and Mr. Diaz was selected to replace her.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

Mr. Espada then sought to have Mr. Diaz's candidacy invalidated on technical grounds, but the Court of Appeals ruled on the night before the primary that Mr. Diaz could appear on the ballot.

After the primary, Mr. Espada contested the results, which showed him having lost to Mr. Diaz by fewer than 200 votes, and sought in court to force a new primary, an effort that ultimately failed.

And so now, Mr. Espada is immersed in a hectic campaign against Mr. Diaz. And the senator is promoting himself as ''an independent Democrat,'' telling voters that he can bring more financial resources back to the district by sitting with the Republican majority. However, in his television commercials on local cable stations and in his campaign appearances, he tells the voters to vote for him on the Independence Party line, rather than on the Republican line.

''I'm emphasizing that there are two Democrats running in this race: one on the Democratic line and the other on the Independence Party line,'' he said.

Mr. Espada has portrayed Mr. Diaz in campaign ads as a ''drug dealer,'' a reference to an incident in which Mr. Diaz pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of drug possession in 1965, when he was 23.

Mr. Diaz, a Pentecostal minister who heads an alliance of Hispanic ministers, said that he has often discussed having used drugs in his youth. ''That was 37 years ago and everybody has known about that.''

He and other Bronx Democrats have pointed to the fact that prosecutors in Albany are conducting a grand jury investigation into Mr. Espada's attempt to award $745,000 in no-bid state grants to a social service group he heads.

Mr. Diaz promotes himself as the ''true Democrat'' and portrays Mr. Espada as someone who abandoned the principles of his party for his own advancement. Despite the huge Democratic advantage in registration, Mr. Diaz is campaigning feverishly. His campaign is being managed by his son, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. (The younger Mr. Diaz replaced Mr. Espada's son in the Assembly seven years ago). ''I'm taking nothing for granted,'' he said. ''The Republican Party has given him a lot of resources. And I know I have to work hard.''